What We Learned from Saturday tripleheader

FULL BOX SCORE

Michael Baca’s takeaways:

1. Burrow weathers hellish storm to keep Bengals’ playoff hopes alive. Concluding one of the better regular-season games you’ll ever see, Joe Burrow zipped a 3-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins in overtime to beat the Broncos and keep Cincinnati in the playoff hunt. It was a fitting end for a duo who connected 11 times for 131 yards and three scores, but Burrow, who essentially led three game-winning drives by the end of Saturday’s thriller, put on a legendary performance that will be talked about for quite some time. There were several big-time plays he made: a beautiful 31-yard dime to Higgins to set up the game-winner, a 38-yarder to Ja’Marr Chase after escaping a collapsing pocket late in the fourth quarter and a perfect TD toss to Higgins in the corner of the end zone to re-take the lead in the third, which was preceded by the QB’s 19-yard scramble on third-and-long. Considering what he had to go through — seven sacks, 15 QB hits, a missed chip-shot field goal in OT that nearly spelled doom — Joe keeping his cool was simply amazing. Burrow finished 39-of-49 passing for 412 yards with three TDs (no turnovers) and scored what could have been the game-sealing TD if not for an incredible Broncos comeback at the end of regulation. It was certainly one to remember for Burrow, who needs a win in Pittsburgh next week for a playoff return, along with some help from other teams.
2. Denver can hold its head high in defeat — but faces a must-win in Week 18. The Broncos have nothing to be ashamed of after taking part in an instant classic and can rest assured knowing they have a gamer in Bo Nix. The rookie QB got the Broncos into OT with an incredible 25-yard strike to Marvin Mims Jr. in the end zone with 14 seconds left in regulation, concluding a seven-play, 70-yard scoring drive that began with 89 seconds and just one timeout. It made up for his only falter of the night — a bad interception late in the fourth quarter, which resulted in the Bengals scoring the go-ahead TD. Nix overcame a rough first half for a Broncos offense that produced only 102 total yards (68 passing) and three points. He came out of halftime firing, leading Denver on consecutive TD drives, the second of which coming on a 51-yard deep shot to Mims. Nix finished 24-of-31 passing for 219 yards with three TDs and an INT while adding 31 yards on scrambles. The Broncos defense also put up an impressive fight, stopping the Bengals on two crucial fourth-down tries in the first half, both of which happening in scoring range. Zach Allen led the charge of Burrow’s harassment all game with 3.5 sacks and six QB hits. The Broncos aren’t out of it yet, either, needing a win or tie in Week 18 to get back into the playoffs to end a drought that’s lasted since Super Bowl 50, but this was a winnable game that could haunt them. Next week, they’ll face a Chiefs team that already has clinched the No. 1 seed in a game they have to have.
3. Bengals avoid potentially disastrous end. Hindsight is 20/20, but a late-game decision by Zac Taylor could have easily led to Cincinnati being out of the playoff race and the head coach potentially feeling the heat of his seat. The Bengals held the fate of this game in their hands late in the fourth quarter following Burrow’s 11-yard strike to Chase, which earned the Bengals a big first down with 1:51 left and led to Denver expending its second timeout. On first-and-goal from the 6-yard line, running back Chase Brown intentionally fell short of the end zone, however, injured himself in the process which inadvertently stopped the clock. The next play-call was a QB sneak, which abandoned the strategy of using up as much time as possible or at least forcing Denver to use its final timeout — one eventually used right before Nix found Mims in the end zone to force OT. Taylor said after the game that Brown’s injury caused him to adjust his end-of-game thinking. Taylor also trotted out Cade York for a 33-yarder in OT on third-and-3, which is a safe play to avoid a bad snap, but considering the Bengals were using a backup kicker, there was still risk involved. York doinked the potential game-winner and Cincinnati was facing a dire situation against a team that just needed a tie to clinch a playoff berth. Fortunately, the Bengals defense got the necessary stop and Burrow authored an incredible ending to prevent yet another devastating loss this season.

Next Gen Stats Insight for Broncos-Bengals (via NFL Pro): Bo Nix’s 51-yard TD pass to Marvin Mims traveled 67.0 yards in the air, the longest completion by air distance of the season and the second-longest in the NGS era (since 2016), behind only PJ Walker to DJ Moore in Week 8, 2022 (67.6 yards).

NFL Research: Joe Burrow is the fourth QB in NFL history to have 10 games with 250-plus passing yards and three passing TDs in a single season (each of the other three QBs to do so won 12-plus games and won NFL MVP). Saturday’s performance by Burrow was also his eighth straight with three-plus passing TDs, tied for the second-longest such streak in NFL history (Tom Brady had 10 in 2007).